In Print
Faculty authors explore Spanish
vanguard poetry, fatherhood,
multi-modal learning, and more.
Photography by R. Marsh Starks
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2012
Bodies in Motion: Spanish
Vanguard Poetry,
Mass Culture, and Gender
Dynamics
By Catherine Bellver
Bucknell University Press, 2010
W
hile America was reveling
in the Roaring ’20s, Spain
was similarly enjoying
“Felices Veinte,” a time of prosperity,
exuberance, and social advancement
for women.
It was an era full of trends more
commonly associated with the 21st century than nearly 100 years ago: wild
music, provocative dances, celebrity
worship, sports mania, fascination with
new technologies, and social change.
The era also brought the advent of
Spanish vanguard poetry, which blossomed after World War I.
The times and poetry combined
to produce a rich cultural milieu that
serves as the focus of Catherine Bellver’s recent book, Bodies in Motion:
Spanish Vanguard Poetry, Mass Culture,
and Gender Dynamics.
Bellver examines the avant-garde
poets of this era, often referred to as the
“Generation of 1927,” who employed
recurring motifs that included dance,
sports, and technological change in
their experimental poetry.
But Bellver’s work goes beyond
the analysis of vanguard poetics. It
also provides insight into the context
in which the poetry was written – an
exciting time in Spain when the literary set collided with the nightclub
crowd, when athletes and entertainers achieved cult status, and
when women emerged as an
intellectual force.
“Some of the phenomena
that we take for granted today had their origins in the
socio-cultural developments
of the ’20s,” says Bellver. “The
seeds of today’s trends were
planted then.”
She notes that in the
poetry of both male and
female vanguardists, dance, sports,
and machines were emblematic
of the liberation the era promised
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and the dynamism it exuded.
The poets she covers in her book
include Rafael Alberti, Carmen Conde,
Guillermo de Torre, Josefina de Torre,
Gerardo Diego, Concha Méndez, Ernestina de Champourcin, Jorge Guillén, José María Hinojosa, Federico García Lorca, Lucía Sánchez Saornil, and
Pedro Salinas.
Their works displayed a newfound
sense of play, liberation, and energy,
Bellver says. Perhaps jazz-inspired,
vanguard poetry took on new rhythms.
Influenced by other modern European
writers and artists, the poets employed
experimental word play and tried new
visual forms.
Bellver finds vivid examples in the
poets’ words that weave together the
strands of music, dance, sports, and motion that together depict the era’s energy.
For example, Concha Méndez describes swimmers’ “beaming torsos/
jumping waves/in lyrical dances/and
acrobatics.”
Bellver also discusses the contrasts
between male and female vanguard poetry, noting both genders chose some
similar subjects and imagery but conveyed very different messages. On the
subject of dance, for instance, the men’s
poetry was more experimental rhythmically and visually, but its voice was that
of spectator rather than participant:
Luis Mosquera wrote of men watching
women “abandoned to the movement/
and under their tight, short dresses/
their hips seem to swell.” Ernestina de
Champourcin, on the other hand, wrote
of being part of the dance herself, “Free
of voice and gestures, I am far from everything./ I am I, on my shores.”
To capture the essence of the poetry
and the times, Bellver traveled to Spain
and embarked on some literary detective work, much of it without the aid
of online sources. She visited the poets’
old gathering places at universities and
former music halls. She combed libraries the old-fashioned way – rummaging
Foreign languages professor
Catherine Bellver
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through the stacks, seeking out unpublished materials, finding tantalizing
scraps of notes and letters, then contacting the agents and heirs of the poets for
permission to copy what she had found.
“Gathering all the rights and permissions myself was a daunting task,”
says Bellver.
Once she had amassed a vast amount
of material, her careful assembly began;
it took her nine years to complete the
book. The footnotes alone, 24 pages of
them, are a scholarly tour de force, revealing her mastery of the history, society, language, and art of the times.
Bellver began the book after being named a UNLV distinguished professor, the
highest honor bestowed on
a faculty member. The designation is awarded to only a
select few – those who have
demonstrated extraordinary
qualities both as teachers
and scholars while achieving national and international recognition. Instead
of resting on her considerable laurels, Bellver ramped
up her research, expanding and combining it with her feminist studies. The
result was two books: Absence and Presence: Spanish Women Poets of the Twenties and Thirties, published in 2001, and
more recently Bodies in Motion.
“The latter is the culmination of
my academic interests,” she says. “It’s
a natural evolution of my critical and
textual background, my fascination
with historical and cultural contexts,
and my literary feminist studies. I then
went back to the study of poetry, where
I began my academic career. I feel like
I’ve come full circle.”
So, it seems, has society. Her
book demonstrates how trends from
an era long past portended today’s
mass media culture. In this way,
Bodies in Motion offers a larger,
more expansive view of poetry of
the era, including perspective on
history and social change.
Bellver is currently pursuing specific studies on several poets discussed
in the book.
—Donna McAleer
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Anthropology professor
Peter Gray
Fatherhood: Evolution and
Human Paternal Behavior
By Peter Gray and Kermyt Anderson
Harvard Press, 2010
A
ny father will tell you how profoundly his life changed after
the birth of his child.
He will tell you of the awe of holding
his child for the first time, the exhaustion of the infancy years, the stresses
of providing for family, the pride in his
child’s accomplishments.
But what about other changes he experiences that are not so evident? And,
more generally, what does it mean to be
a father?
Biological anthropologist Peter Gray
and his coauthor search for answers in
Fatherhood: Evolution and Human Paternal Behavior, a study of the nature
of fatherhood from many perspectives
– the biological, evolutionary, anthropological, and sociological.
More specifically, UNLV’s Gray and
fellow anthropology professor Kermyt
Anderson explore the physiology, behaviors, and social structures of human
fatherhood as it has evolved across
time and different cultures.
The publisher, Harvard University
Press, captures the book’s core premise
with a succinct line: “Fatherhood actually alters a man’s sexuality, rewires his
brain, and changes his hormonal profile.” Gray finds this notion fascinating
and casts the role of father in a larger
evolutionary context.
“One striking feature of human
fatherhood is that men in all cultures
are expected to be involved with their
children to varying degrees,” Gray says.
“This is not a unique occurrence in the
animal world, but it does set us apart.
Among all species of mammals, only
in about 5 percent of these species do
males provide parental care.”
Since our closest primate relatives,
the great apes, have no paternal investment in their offspring, why are
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Abraham Lincoln and Horace Greeley
By Gregory Borchard
Southern Illinois University Press,
2011
U
NLV journalism professor
Gregory Borchard always
planned to write a book about
newspaper editor Horace Greeley. But
when he learned that Greeley’s greatgreat-great grandson was enrolled in
his history of journalism class, the project took on new importance.
“It was a surprising twist of fate,”
Borchard says.
It was also an incredible stroke of
luck, as the journalism historian was
given access to the Greeley family album, which complemented his own
meticulously researched collection of
newspaper articles, personal letters,
and biographies of Greeley. These materials also helped form a more complete picture of Greeley’s interaction
with another important 19th century
figure: Abraham Lincoln. It is this interaction that interests Borchard.
He notes that although a variety of
works have been written about Greeley
and Lincoln as individuals, “few, if any,
Journalism professor
Gregory Borchard
A ARON MAYES
humans different? Is paternal involvement one of humanity’s defining characteristics?
The book attempts to answer such
questions with knowledge about humans from their most primitive days,
comparing human fatherhood behavior patterns to those of other animal
species and surveying detailed anthropological studies of cultures and tribes.
The book also examines the effects of
fatherhood on health and societies.
The authors also include chapters
on cross-cultural diversity, marriage
patterns, fertility, paternity, paternal involvement (or the lack thereof), stepfatherhood, and the physical changes men
undergo when they become fathers.
Both of the authors drew on fairly recent experiences with the transition to fatherhood to find inspiration for the book.
“Working on this book was a joy,”
Gray says, noting that they compiled
the book in a little over a year. “As the
fathers of young children and with
similar backgrounds in evolutionary
anthropology, Kermyt and I share a
passion for studying fatherhood. We
also have similar writing styles, so the
book came together rather seamlessly.”
Their sense of purpose was also
heightened because they felt they were
filling a significant gap in their field.
“The vast amount of scholarship on
parenting focuses on maternal behavior,” says Gray. “The role of fathers is
much less explored.”
The result is a rich and patient assemblage of scholarship that draws
no easy conclusions about fatherhood
but shows its diversity. Fatherhood
has been well reviewed and received,
generating discussion in the Boston
Globe, Psychology Today, the Chronicle
of Higher Education, MSNBC’s Cosmic
Log, and a host of scholarly journals
and local publications. The book, first
published in 2010, recently came out in
paperback.
Gray continues his study of this
area, still fascinated by the biological,
social, and evolutionary aspects of fatherhood. He is currently part of a team
surveying a large sample of Jamaican
fathers about their paternal attitudes.
—Donna McAleer
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have attempted to interpret the life
of each on equal footing, with both contributing to a shared legacy.”
His book, Abraham Lincoln and Horace Greeley, answers this need with a
careful examination of the writings
and behaviors of the two men in the
years leading up to and encompassing
the Civil War.
Borchard begins the book by identifying key beliefs that influenced both
men at the start of their careers. Greeley and Lincoln were members of the
Whig party and avid supporters of the
philosophies of Henry Clay. Both also
shared “a belief in a government based
upon the will of the people and their
natural rights,” and both men abhorred
and sought to end the practice of slavery in America, Borchard writes. Also,
neither Greeley nor Lincoln had the
benefit of a formal education, but each
possessed the intellect and drive needed to rise above humble beginnings.
Greeley’s rise led him to the New
York Tribune, where he served as editor
for nearly 30 years; shortly before he
died, he was a candidate for president.
Lincoln famously worked as an attorney and served in the Illinois legislature and the U.S. House of Representatives before becoming president.
Greeley and Lincoln’s shared lifelong admiration of statesman Henry
Clay united the two men in a way a
common commitment to politics could
not. In the months preceding Clay’s
bid for the presidency in 1844, Lincoln
spoke eloquently and often on Clay’s
behalf. Greeley campaigned extensively
and risked the Tribune’s credibility by
claiming “the Whigs would carry New
York by 20,000 votes.”
When Clay lost to James K. Polk,
the event marked what Borchard calls
“a critical turning point in the careers
of both men – for Lincoln as a Illinois
legislator and Greeley as a popular New
York publisher – leading both of them
to congressional office and revealing
to the nation both who they were and
what the subsequent trajectories of
their lives would be.”
Lincoln became a rising star in what
Borchard describes as the era when the
Whig Party collapsed and the Republi-
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can Party was born. At the same time,
Greeley’s readership and reputation as
an editorial writer grew.
“Greeley’s contemporaries appreciated his ability to write thoughtful articles
and reach an admiring audience that
included erudite city dwellers, farmers,
and homesteaders,” Borchard notes.
In 1848, both men occupied seats
in Congress, Lincoln as an elected representative from Illinois and Greeley
filling a vacated House seat for three
months. In 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the 16th President of the United
States, a position that Greeley helped
him secure.
In the tumultuous months immediately following Lincoln’s election –
when abolitionists pressured Lincoln to
end slavery and South Carolina led the
movement to leave the Union – Greeley regularly excoriated the president
through his newspaper, exhorting him
to suppress the rebellion and avoid war.
After the first shots were fired
on April 12, 1861, however, Greeley
changed directions and his paper published a series of columns urging Lincoln into war, asking him to “stand firm
in preserving the union and defeat secessionists with military force.”
In 1862, Lincoln prepared the first
draft of the Emancipation Proclamation and presented it to advisors, some
of whom wanted it released immediately. Soon after, Greeley wrote an editorial in the Tribune titled “The Prayer of
Twenty Million” that called for Lincoln
to wage war against the South in the
name of ending slavery.
In response to Greeley’s piece, the
President published a letter in the
National Intelligencer that argued he
would preserve the union as his paramount mission. “If I could save the
Union without freeing any slave I
would do it,” Lincoln wrote, “and if I
could save it by freeing all the slaves
I would do it; and if I could save it by
freeing some and leaving others alone I
would also do that.”
Lincoln issued a preliminary emancipation proclamation in September
1862, to which Greeley responded that
the president’s “conversion to the abolitionist cause” was the result of his pa-
per’s extensive coverage of the issue. Although clearly some measure of hubris
was involved, Borchard points out that
Greeley’s role in “popularizing the idea
that the Civil War should become a fight
to free all people” is often overlooked.
By the time Lincoln was reelected in
1864, Sherman’s campaign in Georgia
and the Carolinas was moving the war
to its end. Following Lincoln’s assassination in April 1865, Greeley reacted
with words of “respect and emotion.”
He described Lincoln as “a man, not a
superman” – an assessment, Borchard
writes, that “students of history almost
150 years later can trust in many ways
more than the president’s most worshipful contemporaries.”
Although a number of accounts
have suggested that Greeley and Lincoln were “anything but friends,” they
were, according to Borchard, “political
and intellectual allies.”
“As contemporaries, as intellectuals, and as self-made men, Abraham
Lincoln and Horace Greeley worked to
preserve the union and end slavery,”
Borchard says. “In doing so, the two
men also provided for future generations astonishing examples of citizens
– not superheroes or demigods – with
individual legacies every bit as large as
their sum.”
—Laurie Fruth
* * *
Multimodal Learning for the 21st
Century Adolescent
By Tom Bean
Shell Education, 2010
M
ost teachers wish they could
provide their students with
a rich array of technology resources in the classroom, but not all are
lucky enough to do so.
To UNLV education professor Tom
Bean, it’s disheartening that some classrooms suffer from limited funding for
and access to technology. Gone are the
days, he says, of believing that nontraditional technologies and teaching
methods are not necessary.
“If we are going to get our students
to think critically about the barrage of
information that they encounter on the
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Education professor Tom Bean
Internet, then we have to incorporate
multiple modes of presentation in our
lessons,” he argues.
In his book, Multimodal Learning
for the 21st Century Adolescent, Bean
explores how teachers can capitalize on
the many technologies students now
have at their fingertips.
“Technology can be seen as a
double-edged sword,” says Bean, a nationally recognized expert on content
area teacher creativity, literacy, and
problem solving. “On the one hand,
the Internet and the myriad of devices
available – from iPads to smartphones
to interactive whiteboards to ebooks –
afford access to whole new worlds of
information. On the other hand, the
very richness of these resources can
seem overwhelming.”
Just what does multimodal learning
include? Beyond the traditional printed text, whether it’s in a book or on a
screen, multimodal learning features
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various art forms such as music combined with visual imagery and spatial
cues that carry meaning of their own.
“In addition, with Web 2.0’s interactive elements, such as Wikipedia and
Facebook, the possibilities for student
creativity and production have never
been better,” he says.
Bean, who was nominated by the
Association of the Educational Publishers for a Distinguished Achievement
Award for this book, hails this time period as the golden age for multimodal
approaches. Having teachers and students interacting with and making decisions about design, visual imagery,
music, film clips, navigation, and content allows both groups to be creative.
Another
positive
about
the
multimodal approach is its ability to
recapture disenfranchised students –
those not adept at learning through
traditional means – and get them
engaged once again.
“Our curriculum decisions will start
to shift toward an emphasis on problem-solving abilities and away from
recalling facts for high stakes assessments,” says Bean, who has co-authored
15 books, more than 20 book chapters,
and 88 articles. He also formerly served
as the editor of the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy.
Bean notes that the context for
learning is changing, and teachers must
be adaptable to help students reach
their potential.
“Great teaching takes place through
apprenticeships, coaching, and mentoring in problem-based contexts where
inquiry is paramount,” he says.
Shell Education, which specializes
in professional development materials for educators, approached Bean to
write the book. His editor,
Hillary Wolf, appreciates
its friendly tone and useful-right-now approach.
“This book addresses
the very specific skills kids
are going to need as they
look for jobs in the 21st century: collaboration, communication, visual literacy,
access to technology, and
group projects,” Wolf says.
“This is different from how most of us
learned.”
Various studies Bean cites in his book
reinforce this reality. A Time magazine
report, “The Way We’ll Work,” describes a
future when 85 percent of newly created
jobs will involve problem solving and
critical thinking. Teams of people will be
working together across geographical and
cultural borders in the global knowledge
economy; thus, students need to develop
their discernment, creativity, and ability
to solve problems.
As sole author of Multimodal Learning for the 21st Century Adolescent,
Bean enjoyed the creative freedom he
was given to write the book.
“It was a labor of love and very fulfilling to have my own classroom experiences, content area research, and
the insights of teachers and graduate
students I have worked with come together in one place.”
—Donna McAleer
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